Cleaning Evps

I've noticed that a lot of people do major filtering to their evps to clean them up as much as possible. Where do you draw the line on how much manipulation can be done to an evp before it loses its value as evidence? And what kinds of filtering do you do?

Personally, I'm a minimalist with stuff I present to the public. I've dealt with so many hard core skeptics over the years that if I can't present a Class A evp that hasn't been filtered, I usually won't post it publically. At most, I'll amplify the evp, but am concerned that even doing that much will make it suspect in some people's eyes. OTOH, I'm not sure why I should worry so much about skeptics. The real hard core ones will assume that even the best evp was faked, anyway.

On the level of communicating with spirits, it would be a waste to ignore messages coming through just because the ghost didn't have the ability to make it crystal clear. I put a lot more value in cleaning evps just to get the message they were trying to convey, even if it makes for unconvincing evidence. But I try to be cautious on that count, too. I'm concerned that if I try too hard to get something out of an evp, I'll end up matrixing and not getting the true message (assuming there was one) anyway.

Interests:Well....investigating ghosts and finding out what lies beyond this life of course!

Posted 27 January 2007 - 02:35 PM

I agree with you, I don't clean up my EVP that much either. The only way an EVP can be a class A is if it has not been tampered with in any way. This is also another reason why I only use tape and never a digital recorder. That way, I always have the original tape witht the EVP on it so that it can be scrutinized and also played for people right off the tape. It really does help to eliminate a lot of doubt as to the authenticity of the recording itself. Congrats to you and your minimal editing of audio!

I think that EVP is way over filtered by a majority of people out there working on them. I really wish more people would take the minimal approach.

Krc and Abbey,
Both very good points and I couldn't have said it better myself. You both have the correct approach to EVP, and for that, I thank you!

The only thing I think I can add is that when presenting possible data to people I always try to be neutral. By this I mean I try not to say, "This EVP says such and such". This just goes along with our "This is what we have, we have no explanation for it" approach.

I dont touch my evp either and I use a digital. My digital is pretty clear. I dont have a programme to enhance it anyway. The only thing I do is slow them down to listen to them and turn up the volume. I think its ridiculous sometimes when you hear some of those ones that have been turned into robot voices. I dont hear them at all like that.

Abbey, I try to find out what the spirit was saying also even if I know others wont hear it. I like to know what the spirit was saying as it helps in future investigations & it seems to make the interaction with us and the afterlife so much more personal

Hi.
I believe in trying to keep the raw EVP as 'raw' as possible. But in some situations we need to clean it up to a certain extent..
We use software to do this, eg Adobe 1.5 is the one i use. We then need to amplify or filter hiss.. Its like listening to the radio in the car, you are tunning into the frequency to get a better hearing of the song..
we are only doing what film makers and audio company's are doing all over the world! they digitally enhance passed films to make them more crisp and clear for the listener..
or take an old record of Bing Crosby! they put it on CD (taken out hiss and static etc to make it clear, they are not changing Bing's words in any way...
Star Wars came out in the late 70'Ty's, now they have digitally enhanced it to become more crisp and clear, the last time I watched it, the film it self had not changed, only a better viewing for the watcher...
This is the same thing we do by applying software to clean the EVP.
But beware!!! don't over do it... To much noise reduction and over amplification can ruin a good EVP and lose the creditability.. little is always more, just make the Raw cleaner to listen to don't turn it into a robotic machine type recording, that makes no sense to anyone and will certainly lose creditability.. if there are no voices clear enough to hear on the raw, don't go looking for them!!!!!! thats my motto....
take care, lance.

I've noticed that a lot of people do major filtering to their evps to clean them up as much as possible. Where do you draw the line on how much manipulation can be done to an evp before it loses its value as evidence? And what kinds of filtering do you do?

Personally, I'm a minimalist with stuff I present to the public. I've dealt with so many hard core skeptics over the years that if I can't present a Class A evp that hasn't been filtered, I usually won't post it publically. At most, I'll amplify the evp, but am concerned that even doing that much will make it suspect in some people's eyes. OTOH, I'm not sure why I should worry so much about skeptics. The real hard core ones will assume that even the best evp was faked, anyway.

On the level of communicating with spirits, it would be a waste to ignore messages coming through just because the ghost didn't have the ability to make it crystal clear. I put a lot more value in cleaning evps just to get the message they were trying to convey, even if it makes for unconvincing evidence. But I try to be cautious on that count, too. I'm concerned that if I try too hard to get something out of an evp, I'll end up matrixing and not getting the true message (assuming there was one) anyway.

I too believe in keeping filtering down to a minimum, it loses the quality and sounds artificial. I think the key is being a extremely attentive listener, some people have an easier time "hearing" EVP than others, so for myself I like to listen to it "raw", as another poster put it. But for others who cannot hear as well, filtering may help a bit, especially when used for evidence.

Hi.I believe in trying to keep the raw EVP as 'raw' as possible. But in some situations we need to clean it up to a certain extent..We use software to do this, eg Adobe 1.5 is the one i use. We then need to amplify or filter hiss.. Its like listening to the radio in the car, you are tunning into the frequency to get a better hearing of the song..we are only doing what film makers and audio company's are doing all over the world! they digitally enhance passed films to make them more crisp and clear for the listener.. or take an old record of Bing Crosby! they put it on CD (taken out hiss and static etc to make it clear, they are not changing Bing's words in any way... Star Wars came out in the late 70'Ty's, now they have digitally enhanced it to become more crisp and clear, the last time I watched it, the film it self had not changed, only a better viewing for the watcher...This is the same thing we do by applying software to clean the EVP.But beware!!! don't over do it... To much noise reduction and over amplification can ruin a good EVP and lose the creditability.. little is always more, just make the Raw cleaner to listen to don't turn it into a robotic machine type recording, that makes no sense to anyone and will certainly lose creditability.. if there are no voices clear enough to hear on the raw, don't go looking for them!!!!!! thats my motto....take care, lance.